Transcription of The Essential Odyssey
1 The essentialODYSSEY translated and edited bystanley lombardointroduction bysheila murnaghanhomerThis generous abridgment of Stanley Lombardo s translation of theOdysseyoffers more than half of the epic, including all of its best-knownepisodes and finest poetry, while providing concise summaries for omittedbooks and passages. Sheila Murnaghan s Introduction, a shortened versionof her essay for the unabridged edition, is ideal for readers new to thisremarkable tale of the homecoming of on the LombardoOdyssey [Lombardo] has brought his laconic wit and love of the ribald .. to hisversion of the Odyssey . His carefully honed syntax gives the narrativeenergy and a whirlwind pace. The lines, rhythmic and clipped, have thetautness and force of Odysseus bow. CHRISHEDGES, The New York Times Book Review Lombardo has done it again: he has rendered the Odysseyinto Englishjust as accurate, as perspicuous, and as gripping as that in his s translation is enhanced by Sheila Murnaghan s characteris-tically lucid and accurate Introduction, which will be a boon to teachers ofundergraduates (or even high school students).
2 JOHNKIRBY, Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature, Purdue University Lombardo has created a Homeric voice for his contemporaries: fresh,quick, and verbally engaging to the modern ear, as the original was to theancient. His characters come alive as real people expressing real feelingswith urgency and verve. JOSEPHRUSSO, Professor of Classics, Emeritus, Haverford College The definitive English version of Homer for our time. THECOMMONREVIEW,The Magazine of the Great Books FoundationSTANLEYLOMBARDOis Professor of Classics, University of Professor of Classical Studies, University ofPennsylvania. FnL1 00 0000 780872 208995990000 ISBN-13: 978-0-87220-899-5 Cover art:Earthrise,from the Apollo 11mission. Reproduced courtesy of NASAand the National Space Data Essential ODysseytranslated and edited by stanley lombardohomerhackett0899 Homer The Essential Odyssey EHomer-00 Bk Page i Thursday, July 26, 2007 5:04 PM EHomer-00 Bk Page ii Thursday, July 26, 2007 5:04 PM Homer The Essential Odyssey Translated and Edited byS TANLEY L OMBARDO Introduction byS HEILA M URNAGHAN Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
3 Indianapolis/Cambridge EHomer-00 Bk Page iii Thursday, July 26, 2007 5:04 PMCopyright 2007 by Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved 12 11 10 09 08 07 1 2 3 4 5 6 For further information, please address: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. Box 44937 Indianapolis, IN 46244-0937 Cover design by Abigail Coyle and Brian Rak Interior design by Meera Dash Printed at Edwards Brothers, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Homer. [ ] The Essential Odyssey / Homer ; translated and edited by Stanley Lombardo ; introduction by Sheila Murnaghan. An abridgement of the translator s ed. published in 2000 under the title: Odyssey . ISBN 978-0-87220-899-5 ISBN 978-0-87220-900-8 1. Homer Translations into English. 2. Epic poetry, Greek Translations into English.
4 3. Odysseus (Greek mythology) Poetry. 4. Achilles (Greek mythology) Poetry. 5. Trojan War Poetry. I. Lombardo, Stanley, 1943- II. Title. 2007 883 .01 dc22 2007018788 eISBN 978-1-60384-023-1 (e-book) v Contents Homeric Geography (map)viIntroductionixA Note on the Translation and on the Abridgmentxxv Selections from the Odyssey 1 Glossary of Names244 Suggestions for Further Reading260 EHomer-00 Bk Page v Thursday, July 26, 2007 5:04 PM HOMERIC GEOGRAPHY (MAP) EHomer-00 Bk Page vi Thursday, July 26, 2007 5:04 PM EHomer-00 Bk Page vii Thursday, July 26, 2007 5:04 PM EHomer-00 Bk Page viii Thursday, July 26, 2007 5:04 PM ix Introduction The Odyssey is an epic account of survival and homecoming. Thepoem tells of the return (or in Greek, nostos ) of Odysseus from theGreek victory at Troy to Ithaca, the small, rocky island from whichhe set out twenty years before.
5 It was a central theme of the Trojanlegend that getting home again was at least as great a challenge forthe Greeks as winning the war. Many heroes lost their homecomingsby dying at Troy, including Achilles, the greatest warrior of theGreeks, whose decision to fight in the full knowledge that he wouldnot survive to go home again is told in the Iliad, the other epic attrib-uted to Homer. Others were lost at sea or met with disaster whenthey finally arrived home. The story of the returns of the majorGreek heroes was a favorite subject of heroic song. Within the Odys-sey, a bard is portrayed as singing the tale / Of the hard journeyshome that Pallas Athena / Ordained for the Greeks on their wayback from Troy ( 45), and we know of an actual epic, nolonger surviving, that was entitled the Nostoi or Returns of theGreeks.
6 The Odyssey is also a version of this story, and it containsaccounts of the homecomings of all the major heroes who went toTroy. But it gives that story a distinctive emphasis through its focuson Odysseus, who is presented as the hero best suited to the arduoustask of homecoming and the one whose return is both the most diffi-cult and protracted and the most joyful and telling this story, the poet has also given the greatest weight,not to the perilous, exotic sea journey from Troy, on the west coastof Asia Minor (present-day Turkey), to the shore of Ithaca, off thewest coast of Greece, but to the final phase of the hero s return, hisreentry into his household and recovery of his former position at itscenter. As a result, the Odyssey is, perhaps surprisingly, an epic poemthat foregrounds its hero s experiences in his home and with his fam-ily, presenting his success in picking up the threads of his previouslife as his greatest exploit.
7 The Odyssey charges the domestic world towhich its hero returns with the same danger and enchantment foundin the larger, wilder realm of warfare and seafaring. Seen from the EHomer-00 Bk Page ix Thursday, July 26, 2007 5:04 PM x Introduction perspective of his wanderings, Odysseus home becomes at oncemore precious and more precarious. As he struggles to reestablishhimself in a place that has been changed by his twenty-year absence,we are made to reconsider, along with him, the value of the familiarand the danger of taking it for granted. A Tale of Homecoming The Odyssey makes skillful use of the craft of storytelling to createthis emphasis on the final phase of Odysseus the poem, Odysseus story is set against that of anothergreat hero of Troy, Agamemnon, whose own return failed just at thepoint when he reached his home.
8 As the leader of the Greek expedi-tion, Agamemnon seemed poised to enjoy the greatest triumph, andhe was able to make the sea journey back to the shores of his king-dom without much trouble. But in his absence his wife, Clytem-nestra, had taken a lover, Aegisthus, who plotted to kill Agamemnonon his return, cutting him down just when he thought he could relaxhis guard and rejoice in his achievement. This story has the status inthe Odyssey of a kind of norm or model for what might be expected tohappen, and it is brought up at strategic moments to serve as a warn-ing to Odysseus and his supporters, a repeated reminder that simplyarriving home does not mean the end of peril and importance of this final phase is also conveyed by theintricate structure of the Odyssey s plot, which places stress on Ithacaand on Odysseus experiences there through the manipulation ofchronology and changes of scene.
9 The action of the Odyssey begins,not with the fall of Troy as one might expect, but just a few weeksbefore Odysseus arrival at Ithaca ten years later. The poem openswith a divine council, in which the gods recognize that the fated timefor Odysseus return has finally arrived and take steps to set it inmotion. In the human realm, the urgency of this moment is moreacute on Ithaca, where events are moving swiftly in a dangerousdirection, than on Ogygia, the remote island where Odysseus istrapped with a goddess, Calypso, in a suspended state of inactivityand nostalgia that has been going on for seven years and could con-tinue indefinitely. The plan the gods come up with has two parts:Athena will go to Ithaca to prompt Odysseus son, Telemachus, touseful action, and Hermes will go to Calypso and command her to EHomer-00 Bk Page x Thursday, July 26, 2007 5:04 PM Introduction xi release Odysseus; the poet chooses to narrate the Ithacan part first,giving priority to the situation and characters there.
10 Thus, before wesee Odysseus in action, we are introduced to Odysseus household inhis absence, where his long years away have created a difficult situa-tion that is now heading toward a the young men of Ithaca and the surrounding region aretrying to take over Odysseus vacant position, staking their claims bysetting themselves up as suitors to Odysseus wife, Penelope. In thisrole, they spend their days feasting and reveling in Odysseus house,steadily consuming the resources of his large estate. Unable to sendthem packing, Penelope has cleverly held them at bay for threeyears, but they have discovered her ruses and their patience is run-ning out. Meanwhile, Telemachus is just reaching manhood. Untilnow, he has been too young to do anything about the suitors, but hetoo is getting impatient with the unresolved nature of the situationand the constant depletion of his inheritance.
